Collecting at Oxford: A History of the University's Museums, Gardens, and Libraries

This thesis is intended to give an overall account of the collecting practices of the University of Oxford, from its origins through to the present day. Each of the twelve chapters takes as its subject one or more institutions, which are considered both historically and architecturally. Emphasis is placed on the relationships between the institutions (ranging from the sharing of staff to the transfer of material), and on the ways in which the institutions themselves have helped to facilitate both teaching and research over the full range of academic disciplines. The first chapter is concerned with the three university libraries, while the second deals with the various facilities housed in the Schools Quadrangle. The third chapter traces the history of the university's collections of antique sculpture, the fourth is concerned with the Oxford Physics Garden, and the fifth deals with the Oxford University Press. The sixth chapter traces the history of the Ashmolean Museum from its origins through to the end of the nineteenth century, while the seventh is concerned with the University Galleries and Taylor Institution. The eighth chapter deals with the Ashmolean Museum in the twentieth century, the ninth traces the history of the University Museum, and the tenth is concerned with the Pitt Rivers Museum. The eleventh chapter deals with the Museum of the History of Science, while the twelfth traces the history of the Indian Institute. Following the twelfth chapter is an appendix containing information on the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments, the Clarendon Museum, the Harcourt Arboretum, the New Bodleian Library, the Oxford University Press Museum, the Radcliffe Library, and the University Parks.